ARTICLES ABOUT WEBCAM BY DATE - PAGE 5

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - A Superior Court judge ruled Friday that there was more than enough evidence to support invasion-of-privacy and bias-intimidation charges against former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi, who used the webcam on his laptop computer to watch his male roommate having sex with a man. The ruling by Judge Glenn Berman came in response to a defense motion to dismiss all charges in the case. In rejecting the defense argument, Berman emphasized that his ruling was not a reflection on Ravi's guilt or innocence, but rather an analysis of the prosecution's grand jury presentation and the subsequent 15-count indictment handed up in April against the 19-year-old.

Upset about having a gay roommate, former student Dharun Ravi set out to harass the fellow freshman by secretly recording him in a sexual encounter with a man, a prosecutor in the Rutgers University invasion-of-privacy webcam case said in a sharply worded motion made public Monday. Ravi wanted to "expose" his roommate's "sexual orientation to others so as to embarrass, humiliate and intimidate him," First Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Julia L. McClure wrote in a 59-page motion filed Thursday, but kept under seal until it was reviewed by trial Judge Glenn Berman.

The Lower Merion School District has agreed to pay $10,000 to a teen secretly recorded by his school-issued laptop, the fourth settlement with a student since the webcam scandal broke last year. The school board approved the payout at its meeting Monday night, spokesman Doug Young said. The district did not identify the student. Lower Merion paid more than $1.6 million last year to litigate and settle allegations that it spied on students through webcams on the laptops it gave to each of its nearly 2,300 high school students.

Lawyers defending a former Rutgers University student accused of spying on his roommate's sexual encounter with another man say that prosecutors are withholding evidence that could help clear their client. Dharun Ravi, 19, of Plainsboro, is charged with bias intimidation and invasion of privacy for using a webcam to watch his roommate, Tyler Clementi, in a romantic liaison with another man in their dorm room last September. Ravi watched the encounter from a computer in another student's room and told his followers on Twitter that his roommate was "making out with a dude.

Eight months after the Lower Merion School District thought it had settled the furor over secret monitoring of its students' laptops, the district faces a new legal battle on the issue. On Monday, a 2009 graduate of Harriton High School sued the district, saying it violated his civil rights by capturing nearly 8,000 webcam photos and screen shots from his laptop between September 2008 and March 2009. The plaintiff, Joshua Levin, contends he was "shocked, humiliated, and severely emotionally distressed" after viewing the images last summer.

A former Rutgers University freshman pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of bias intimidation and invasion of privacy in the webcast of his roommate's sexual encounter with another man. The roommate committed suicide days afterward. Dharun Ravi, 19, of Plainsboro, said nothing during his first court appearance, a brief arraignment hearing at Middlesex County Superior Court in New Brunswick. His attorney, Steven Altman, entered the plea for him. Altman and Ravi declined to comment afterward.

A former Rutgers University freshman pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of bias intimidation and invasion of privacy for using a webcam to view his roommate's sexual encounter with another man. The roommate committed suicide days afterward. Dharun Ravi, 19, of Plainsboro, said nothing during a brief arraignment hearing at Middlesex County Superior Court in New Brunswick. His lawyer, Steven Altman, entered the plea for him. Altman and Ravi declined to comment after the hearing.